
.pn 



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" The nature and solemnity of our present trust is to preserve and 
transmit our existing system of domestic servitude, loitli the rigid, un- 
changed hy onan, to go and root itself ivherever Providence and nature 
7nay carry it.'' — Dr. Palmee. 



/I 



THANKSGIVING SERMON, 



DELIVERED AT THE 



'•S*i^4 $ihH 



%uh'\V'^'^H4^ % 



i 



On Tlnn-rl-ij-^ Tilnnrmliri 29, 1860 



BY 



EEV. B. M. PALMEK, B. D. 



iV- ^ 



. N E W - Y R K : 
GEORGE r. NESBITT & CO., PRINTERS, 

CORNEU OF PEARL AND PINE STS. 

18tU. 






--r\^ 



[From the Siinda>/ Delta, Xew Orleans.] 

SERMON. 



Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a 
law ? — Psalm xciv, 20. 

All the men of thy confederacy have brought thee even to tlie border ; the men that 
were at peace witli thee have deceived thee, and prevailed against thee ; they that ate 
thy bread have laid a wound under thee ; there is none understanding in him. — Oba- 

DIAH V. 

The voice of the Chief Magistrate has summoned us to-day to 
the house of prayer. This call, in its annual repetition, may be, 
too often, only a solemn state -form ; nevertheless, it covers a 
mighty and a double truth. 

It recognizes the existence of a personal God, whose will shapes 
the destiny of nations, and that sentiment of religion in man 
which points to Him as the needle to the pole. Even with those 
who grope in the twilight of natural religion, natural conscience 
gives a voice to the dispensations of Providence. If in autumn 
" extensive har\'ests hang their heavy head," the joyous reaper, 
" crowned with the sickle and the wheaten sheaf," lifts his heart 
to the '"Father of lights, from whom cometh down every good 
and perfect gift." Or, if pestilence and famine waste the earth, 
even pagan altars smoke with bleeding victims, and costl}^ heca- 
tombs appease the divine anger which flames out in such dire 
misfortunes. It is the instinct of man's religious nature, which, 
among Christians and heathens alike, seeks after God — the natural 
homage which reason, blinded as it may be, pays to a universal 
and ruling Providence. All classes bow beneath its spell, espe- 
cially in seasons of gloom, when a nation bends beneath the 
weight of a general calamity, and a common sorrow falls upon 
every heart. The hesitating skeptic forgets to weigh his scruples, 
as the dark shadow passes over him and fills his soul with awe. 



The dainty philosopher, coolly disconrsing of the forces of nature 
and her uniform laws, abandons for a time his atheistical specula- 
tions, abashed by the proofs of a supreme and personal will. 

Thus the devout followers of Jesus Christ, and those who do 
not rise above the level of mere theism, are drawn into momentary 
fellowship ; as, under the pressure of these inextinguishable con- 
victions, they pay a public and united homage to the G<»d of 
nature and grace. 

In obedience to this great law of religious feeling, not less than 
in obedience to the civil ruler who represents this Commonwealth 
in its unity, we are now assembled. Hitherto, on similar occa- 
sions, our language has been the language of gratitude and song. 
" The voice of rejoicing and salvation was in the tabernacles of 
the righteous."' Together we praised the Lord "that our garners 
were full, affording all manner of store ; that our sheep brought 
forth thousands and tens of thousands in our streets ; that our 
oxen were strong to labor, and there was no breaking in nor going 
out, and no complaining was in our streets."" As we together sur- 
veyed the blessings of Providence, tbe joyful chorus swelled from 
millions of people, "Peace be within thy walls, and prosperitv 
within thy palaces.'" Buit, to-day, burdened hearts all over this 
land are brought to the sanctuary of God. We " see the tents of 
Cushan in affliction, and the curtains of the land of Midian do 
tremble." We have fallen upon times wdien there are "signs in 
the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars ; upon the earth dis- 
tress of nations, with perplexity : the sea and the waves roaring : 
men's hearts failing them tor fear, and for looking after those 
things which are coming "" in the near, yet gloomj', future. Since 
the words of this proclamation were penned by which we are con- 
vened, that which all men dreaded, l)ut against which all men 
hoped, has been realized; and in the triumph of a sectional ma- 
jority, we are compelled to read the probable doom of our once 
happy and united confederacy. It is not to be ctmcealed, that we 
are in the most fearful and perilous crisis which has occurred in / 

our history as a nation. The cords which, during four-fifths of a ji 

centurv, have bound together this growing Eepublic, are now 
strained to their utmost tension — thev just need the touch of fire ' 



to part asunder forever. Like a sLip laboring iu the storm, and 
suddenly grounded upon some treacherous shoal, every timber of 
this vast confederacy strains and groans under the pressure. Sec- 
tional divisions, the jealousy of lival interests, the lust of political 
power, a bastard ambition, which looks to personal aggrandize- 
ment rather than to the public weal, a reckless radicalism, which 
seeks for the sidjversion of all that is ancient and stable, and a 
furious fanaticism, which drives on its ill-considered conclusions 
with utter disregard of the evil it engenders — ^all these combine to 
create a portentous crisis, the like of which we have never known 
before, and which puts to a crucifying test the virtue, the patriot- 
ism, and the piety of the country. 

You, my hearers, who have waited upon my pul:)lic ministry, 
and have known me in the intimacies of ]:)astoral intercourse, will 
do me the justice to testify that I have never intermeddled with 
political questions. Interested as I might be in the progress of 
events, I have never obtruded, either publicly or privately, my 
opinions upon any of you ; nor can a single man arise and say that, 
by word or sign, have I ever sought to warp his sentiments or 
control his judgment upon any political subject whatsoever. The 
party questions which have hitherto divided the political world, 
have seemed to me to involve no issue sufficiently momentous to 
warrant my turning aside, even for a moment, from my chosen 
calling. In this day of intelligence, I have felt there were thou- 
sands around me more competent to instruct in statesmanship ; and 
thus, from considerations of modesty, no less than prudence, I 
have preferred to move among you as a preacher of righteousness 
belonging to a kingdom not of this world. 

During the heated canvass wliich has just been brought to so 
disastrous a close, tlie seal of a rigid and ]'eligious silence has not 
been broken. I dc})lored the divisions amongst us, as being, to a 
large extent, impertinent in the solemn crisis which was too evi- 
dently impending. Most clearly did it appear to me that but one 
issue was before us ; an issue soon to be presented in a. form which 
would compel the attention. That crisis might make it impera- 
tive upon me, as a Christian and a. divine, to speak in language 
admitting no misconstruction. Fntil then, aside from the din and 



strife of parties, I could only mature, with solitary and prayerful 
thought, the destined utterance. That hour has come. At a 
juncture so solemn as the present, with the destiny of a great people 
waiting upon the decision of an liour, it is not lawful to be still. 
Whoever ma.j have influence to shape public opinion, at such a 
time must lend it, or prove faithless to a trust as solemn as any to 
be accounted for at the bar of God. 

Is it immodest in me to assume that I may represent a class 
whose opinions in such a controversy are of cardinal imp irtance — 
the class which seeks to ascertain its duty in the light simpl}^ of 
conscience and religion, and Avhicli turns to the moralist and the 
Christian for support and guidance ? The question, too, which now 
places us upon the brink of revolution, was, in its origin, a ques- 
tion of morals and religion. It was debated in ecclesiastical coun- 
cils before it entered legislative halls. It has riven asunder the 
two largest religious communions in the land ; and the right deter- 
mination of this 23rimary question will go far toward fixing the 
attitude we must assume in the coming struggle. I sincerely pray 
God that I may l)e forgiven if I have misapprehended the duty 
incumbent upon me to-day ; for I have ascended this pulpit under 
the agitation of feeling natural to one who is about to deviate from 
the settled policy of his public life. It is my purpose — not as 
your organ, compromiting you, whose opinions are for the most 
part unknown to me, but on my sole responsibility — to speak upon 
the one question of the day ; and to state the duty which, as I 
believe, patriotism and religion alike requires of us all. I shall 
aim to speak with a moderation of tone and feeling almost judicial, 
well befitting the sanctities of the placa and the solemnities of the 
j udgment-day. 

In determining our duty in this emergency, it is necessary that 
we should first ascertain the nature of the trust providentially 
committed to us. A nation often has a character as well-defined 
and intense as that of the individual. This depends, of course, 
upon a variety of causes, operating through a long period of time. 
It is due largely to the original traits wdiicli distinguish the stock 
from which it springs, and to the providential training which has 
formed its education. But, however derived, this individuality of 



character alone makes any people truly historic, competent to 
work out its specific mission, and to become a factor in the world's 
progress. The particular trust assigned to such a people becomes 
the pledge of Divine pi-otection, and their fidelity to it determines 
the fate by which it is finally overtaken. What that trust is must 
be ascertained from the necessities of their position, the institutions 
which are the outgrowth of their principles, and the conflicts 
through which they preserve their identity and independence. K, 
then, the South is such a people, what, at this juncture, is their 
providential trust? I answer, that it is to conserve and to per- 
petuatt the institution of domestic slavery as now existing. It is not 
necessary here to inquire whether this is precisely the best rela- 
tion in which the hewer of wood and drawer of water can stand to 
his employer ; although this proposition may perhaps be success- 
full v sustained by those who choose to defend it. Still less are 
we required, dogmatically, to afiirm that it will subsist through all 
time. Baffled as our wisdom may now be, in finding a solution 
of this intricate social problem, it would, nevertheless, be the 
height of arrogance to pronounce what changes may or may not 
occur in the distant future. In the grand march of events. Pro- 
vidence may work out a solution undiscoverable hy us. What 
modifications of soil and climate may hereafter be produced, what 
consequent changes in the products on which we depend, what 
political revolutions may occur among the races which are now 
enacting the great drama of history ; — all such inquiries are totally 
in'elevant, because no prophetic vision can pierce the darkness of 
that future. If this question should ever arise, the generation to 
whom it is remitted will doubtless have the wisdom to meet it, 
and Providence will furuish the lights iji which it is to be 
resolved. All that we claim for them and for ourselves is liberty 
to work out this problem, guided by nature and God, without 
obtrusive interibrence from abroad. These great questions of 
providence and historj- must have free scope for their solution ; 
and the race whose fortunes are distinctly implicated in the same 
is alone authorized, as it is alone competent, to determine them. 
It is just this impertinence of human legislation, setting bounds to 
what God only can I'egulate, that the South is called this day to 



resent and resist. The country is convulsed simply because " the 
throne of iniquity frameth mischief by a law." Without, there- 
fore, determining the question of duty for future generations, I 
simply say, that for us, as now situated, the duty is plain of con- 
serving and transmitting the system of slavery, with the freest 
scope for its natural development and extension. Let us, my 
brethren, look our duty in the face. With this institution assigned 
to our keeping, what reply shall we make to those who say that 
its days are numbered ? My own conviction is, that we should 
at once lift ourselves, intelligently, to the highest moral ground, 
and proclaim to all the world that we hold this trust from God, 
and in its occupancy we are prepared to stand or fall as God may 
appoint. If the critical moment has arrived at which the great 
issue is joined, let us say that, in the sight of all perils, we will 
stand by our trust : and God be with the right ! 

The argument which enforces the solemnity of this providential 
trust is simple and condensed. It is bound upon us, then, by the 
'princi'ple of self-preservaiion^ that " first law " which is continual!}' 
asserting its supremacy over others. N^eed I pause to show how 
this system of servitude underlies and supports our material inte- 
rests ? That our wealth consists in our lands, and in the serfs who 
till them? That from the nature of our products they can only be 
cultivated by labor which must be controlled in order to be cer- 
tain ? That any other than a tropical race must faint and wither 
beneath a tropical sun ? ISTeed I pause to show how this sj'stem 
is interwoven with our entire social fabric ? That these slaves 
form parts of our households, even as our children ; and that, too, 
through a relationship recognized and sanctioned in the scriptures 
of God even as the other ? Must I pause to show how it has 
fashioned our modes of life, and determined all our habits of 
thought and feeling, and moulded the very type of our civiliza- 
tion ? How, then, can the hand of violence be laid upon it without 
involving our existence ? The so-called free States of this country 
are working out the social problem under conditions peculiar to 
themselves. These conditions are sufficiently hard, and their 
success is too uncertain, to excite in us the least jealousy of their 
lot. With a teeming population, which the soil cannot support — 



with their wealth depending upon arts, created bj artificial wants — 
with an eternal friction between the grades of their societ}' — with 
their labor and then- capital grinding against each other like the 
upper and nether millstones — with labor cheapened and displaced 
by new mechanical inventions, bursting more asunder the bonds 
of brotherhood ; amid these intricate perils we have ever given 
them our sympathy and our prayers, and have never sought to 
weaken the foundations of their social order. God grant them 
complete success in the solution of all their perplexities ! We, 
too, have our responsibilities and our trials ; but they are all bound 
up in this one institution, which has been the object of such un- 
righteous assault through five and twenty 3- ears. If we are true 
to om'selves, we shall, at this critical juncture, stand by it, and work 
out our destiny. 

This duty is bound upon us again as the constituted guardians of 
the slaves themselves. Our lot is not more implicated in theirs, 
than is their lot in ours : in our mutual relations we survive or 
perish together. The worst foes of the black race are those who 
have intermeddled on their behalf We know better than others 
that every attribute of their character fits them for dependence 
and servitude. By nature, the most afiectiouate and loyal of all 
races beneath the sun, they are also the most helpless ; and no 
calamity can befall them greater than the loss of that protection 
they enjoy under this patriarchal sj'stem. Indeed, the experiment 
has been grandh^ tried of precipitating them upon freedom, which 
they know not how to enjoy ; and the dismal results are before 
us, in statistics that astonish the world. With the fairest portions 
of the earth in their possession, and with the advantage of a long 
discipline as cultivators of the soil, their constitutional indolence 
has converted the most beautiful islands of the sea into a howling 
waste. It is not too much to say, that if the South should, at 
this moment, surrender every slave, the wisdom of the entire world, 
united in solemn council, could not solve tlie question of their dis- 
posal. Their transportation to Africa, even if it were feasible, 
would be but the most refined cruelty ; they must perish with 
starvation before they could have time to relapse into their prim- 
itive barl)arisni. Tlieir residence liere, in tbt- [)resence of the 



r 



10 

vigorous Saxon race, would be but the signal for their rapid ex- 
termination before they had time to waste away through listless- 
ness, filth and vice. Freedom would be their doom ; and equally 
from Ijoth they call upon us, their providential guardians, to be 
protected. I know this argument will be scoffed abroad as the 
hypocritical cover thrown over our own cupidity and selfishness ; 
but every Southern master knows its truth and feels its power. 
My servant, whether born in my house or bought with my mone}^, 
stands to me in the relation of a child. Though providentially 
owing me service, which, providentiall}*, I am bound to exact, he 
is, nevertheless, my brother and my friend ; and I am to him a 
guardian and a father. He leans upon me for protection, for 
counsel, and for blessing ; and so long as the relation continues, 
no power, but the power of almighty God, shall come between 
him and me. Were there no argument but this, it binds upon us 
the providential duty of preserving the relation that we may save 
him from a doom worse than death. 

It is a duty which we owe, further, to the civilized tvorld. It is 
a remarkable fact, that during these thirty years of unceasing war- 
fare against slavery, and while a lying spirit has inflamed the 
world against us, that world has grown more and more dependent 
upon it for sustenance and wealth. Every tyro knows that all 
branches of industry fall back upon the soil. We must come, 
every one of us, to the bosom of this great mother for nourish- 
ment. In the happy partnershij) which has grown up in provi- 
dence between the tribes of this confederacy, our industry has 
been concentrated upon agriculture. To the North we have 
cheerfully resigned all the profits arising from manufacture and 
commerce. Those profits they have, for the most part, fairly 
earned, and we have never begrudged them. We have sent them 
our sugar, and bought it back when refined ; we have sent them 
our cotton, and bought it back when spun into thread or woven 
into cloth. Almost every article we use, from the shoe-latchet to 
the most elaborate and costly article of luxmy, they have made 
and we have bought ; and both sections have thriven by the part- 
nership, as no people ever thrived before since the first shining of 
the sun. So literally true are the words of the text, addressed by 



11 

Obadiah to Edom, " All the men of our confederacy, the men 
that were at peace with us, have eaten our bread at the very time 
the}^ have deceived and laid a wound under us." Even beyond 
this — the enriching commerce which has built the splendid cities 
and marble palaces of England as well as of America, has been 
largely established upon the products of our soil ; and the blooms 
upon Southern fields, gathered by black hands, have fed the spin- 
dles and looms of Manchester and Birmingham not less than of 
Lawrence and Lowell. Strike now a blow at this system of labor, 
and the world itself totters at the stroke. Shall we permit that 
blow to fall ? Do we not owe it to civilized man to stand in the 
breach and stay the uplifted arm ? If the blind Samson lays 
hold of the pillars which support the arch of the world's industrj^, 
how many more will be buried beneath its ruins than the lords of 
the Philistines ? " Who knoweth whether we are not come to the 
kingdom for such a time as this?" 

Last of all, in this great straggle, rue defend the cause of God and 
relic/ion. The. Abolition spirit is undeniably atheistic. The demon 
which erected its throne upon the guillotine in the days of Eobes- 
pierre and Marat, which abolished the Sabbath, and worshiped 
reason in the person of a harlot, yet survives to work other hor- 
rors, of which those of the French revolution are but the type. 
Among a people so generally religious as the American, a disguise 
must be worn ; but it is the same old threadbare disguise of the 
advocacy of human rights. From a thousand Jacobin clubs here, as 
in France, the decree has gone forth which strikes at Qod by striking 
at all subordination and law. Availing itself of the morbid and 
misdirected sympathies of men, it has entrapped weak consciences 
in the meshes of its treachery ; and now, at last, has seated its 
high-priest upon the throne, clad in the black garments of discord 
and schism, so symbolic of its ends. Under this specious cry of 
reform, it demands that every evil shall be corrected, or society 
become a wreck — the sun must be stricken from the heavens, if a 
spot is found on his disk. The Most High, knowing his own 
power, which is infinite, and his own wisdom, which is unfathom- 
able, can afford to be patient. But these self-constituted reformers 
must quicken the activity of Jehovah, or compel his abdication. 



12 

In their furious haste, they trample upon obligations sacred as any 
which can bind tlie conscience. It is time to reproduce the obso- 
lete idea that Pro\'idence must govern man, and not that man 
should control Providence. In the imperfect state of human so- 
ciety, it pleases God to allow evils which check others that are 
greater. As in the physical world, objects are moved forward, 
not by a single force, but by the composition of forces ; so in his 
moral administration, there are checks and balances whose inti- 
mate relations are comprehended only by himself But what reck 
they of this — these fierce zealots who undertake to drive the 
chariot of the sun? working out the single and false idea which 
rides them like a nightmare, they dash athwart the spheres, ut- 
terly disregarding the delicate mechanism of Providence ; which 
moves on wheels within wheels, with pivots, and balances, and 
springs, which the great designer alone can control. This spirit of 
atheism, which knows no God who tolerates evil, no Bible which 
sanctions law, and no conscience that can be bound by oaths and 
covenants, has selected us for its victims, and slavery for its issue. 
Its banner-cry rings out already upon the air — " Libert}*, equal- 
ify, fraternity," which, simply interpreted, mean bondage, confis- 
cation and massacre. With its tricolor waving in the breeze, it 
waits to inaugurate its reign of terror. To the South the highest 
position is assigned, of defending, before all nations, the cause of 
all religion and of all truth. In this trust, we are resisting the 
power which wars against constitutions, and laws and compacts, 
against Sabbaths and sanctuaries, against the family, the State 
and the church ; which blasphemously invades the prerogatives of 
God, and rebukes the Most High for the errors of his administra- 
tion, which, if it cannot snatch the reins of empire from his grasp, 
will lay the universe in ruins at his feet. Is it possible that we 
shall decline the onset ? 

This argument, then, which sweeps over the entire circle of our 
relations, touches the four cardinal points of duty to ourselves^ to 
our slaves^ to the tvorld, and to almighty God. It establishes the 
nature and solemnity of our present trust to preserve and transmit 
our existing system of domestic servitude.^ luith the right ^ unchanged by 
man, to go and root itself loherever Providence and nature may carry 



1 o 
lo 

it. This trust we will discharge in the face of the worst possible 
peril. Though war be the aggregation of all evils, yet, should the 
madness of the hour appeal to the arbitration of the sword, we 
will not shrink even from the baptism of fire. If modern crusa- 
ders stand in serried ranks upon some plain of Esdraelon, there 
shall we be in defense of our trust. Not till the last man has 
fallen behind the last rampart, shall it drop from our hands ; and 
then only in surrender to the Grod who gave it. 

Against this institution a system of aggression has been pursued 
through the last thirty years. Initiated by a few fanatics, who 
were at first despised, it has gathered strength from opposition until 
it has assumed its present gigantic proportions. No man has 
thoughtfully watched the progress of this controversy without 
being convinced that the crisis must at length come. Some few, 
perhaps, have hoped against hope, that the gathering imposthume 
might be dispersed, and the poison be eliminated from the bodv 
politic by healthful remedies. But the delusion has scarcely been 
cherished by those who have studied the history of fanaticism, in 
its path of blood and fire through the ages of the past. The mo- 
ment must arrive when the conflict must be joined, and victorjr 
decide for one or the other. As it has been a war of legislative 
tactics, and not of physical force, both parties have been maneu- 
vering for a position : and the embarrassment has been, while 
dodging amidst constitutional forms, to make an issue that should 
be clear, simple and tangible. Such an issue is at length presented 
in the result of the recent Presidential election. Be it obsei-ved, 
too, that it is an issue made by the North, not b}^ the South ; upon 
whom, therefore, must rest the entire guilt of the present disturb- 
ance. With a choice between three national candidates, who have 
more or less divided the vote of the South, the North, with unex- 
ampled unanimity, have cast their ballot for a candidate who is 
sectional, who represents a party that is sectional, and the ground 
of that sectionalism, prejudiced against the established and consti- 
tutional rights and immunities and institutions of the South. 
What does this declare — what can it declare — but that from hence- 
forth this is to be a government of section over section ; a govern- 
ment using constitutional forms only to embarrass and divide the 



14 

section ruled, and as fortresses through whose embrasui'es the 
cannon of legislation is to be employed in demolishing the guaran- 
teed institutions of the South ? What issue is more direct, concrete, 
intelligible, than this? I thank God that, since the conflict must 
be joined, the responsibility of this issue rests not with us, who 
have ever acted upon the defensive ; and that it is so disembar- 
rassed and simple that the feeblest mind can understand it. 

The question with the South to-day is not what issue shall she 
make, but how shall she meet that which is prepared for her ? Is 
it possible that we can hesitate longer than a moment ? In our 
natural recoil from the perils of revolution, and with our clinging 
fondness for the memories of the past, we may perhaps look 
around for something to soften the asperity of this issue, for some 
ground on which we may defer the day of evil, for some hope that 
the gathering clouds may not burst in fury upon the land. 

It is alleged, for example, that the President elect has been 
chosen by a fair majority, under prescribed forms. But need I 
say, to those who have read history, that no despotism is more ab- 
solute than that of an unprincipled democracy, and no tyranny 
more galling than that exercised through constitutional formulas ? 
But the plea is idle, when the very question we debate is the per- 
petuation of that constitution now converted into an engine of op- 
pression, and the continuance of that union which is henceforth to 
be our condition of vassalage. I say it with solemnity and pain, 
this union of our forefathers is already gone. It existed but in 
mutual confidence, the bonds of which were ruptured in the late 
election. Though its form should be preserved, it is, in fact, de- 
stroyed. We may possibly entertain the project of reconstructmg 
it ; but it will be another union, resting upon other than past gua- 
rantees. " In that we say a new covenant, we have made the first 
old, and that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish 
awa}^"—" as a vesture it is folded up." For myself, I say, that 
under the rule which threatens us, I throw off the yoke of this 
union as readily as did our ancestors the yoke of King George 
III., and for causes immeasurably stronger than those pleaded in 
their celebrated declaration. 

It is softly whispei'ed, too, that the successful competitor for the 



15 

throne protests and avers his purpose to administer the govern- 
ment in a conservative and national spirit. Allowing him all cre- 
dit for personal integrit}- in these protestations, he is, in this mat- 
ter, nearly as impotent for good as he is competent for evil. He 
is nothing more than a hgure upon the political chess-board — 
whether pawn, or knight, or king, will hereafter appear — but still 
a silent figure upon the checkered squares, moved by the hands 
of an unseen player. That player is the party to which he owes 
his elevation ; a party that has signalized its history by the most 
unblushing perjuries. What faith can be placed in the protesta 
tions of men who openly avow that their consciences are too sub- 
limated to be restrained by the obligation of covenants or by the 
sanctity of oaths ? No : we have seen the trail of the serpent five 
and twenty years in our Eden; twined now in the branches of the 
forbidden tree, we feel the pangs of death already begun, as its 
hot breath is upon our cheek, hissing out the original falsehood, 
" Ye shall not sm-ely die." 

Another suggests, that even yet the electors, alarmed by these 
demonstrations of the South, may not cast the black ball which 
dooms their country to the executioner. It is a forlorn hope. 
Whether we should counsel such breach of faith in them, or take 
refuge in their treachery — whether such a result would give a 
President chosen by the people according to the Constitution— are 
points I will not discuss. But that it w^ould prove a cure for any 
of our ills, who can believe ? It is certain that it would, with some 
show of justice, exasperate a party sufficiently ferocious — that it 
would doom us to four years of increasing strife and bitterness — 
and that the crisis must come at last, under issues possibly not 
half so clear as the present. Let us not desire to shift the day of 
trial by miserable subterfuges of this sort. The issue is upon us ; 
let us meet it like men, and end this strife forever. 

But some quietist whispers, yet. further, this majority is acci- 
dental, and has been swelled by accessions of men simply opposed 
to the existing administration : the [)arty is utterly heterogeneous, 
and must be shivered into fragments b\' its own success. I con- 
fess, frankh", this suggestion has staggered me more than any 
other, and I sought to take refuge therein. AVhy should we not 



16 

wait and see the effect of success itself upon a party whose ele- 
ments miglit devour each other in the very distribution of the 
spoil ? Two considerations have dissipated the fallacy before me. 
The first is, that, liowever mixed the party, Abolitionism is clearly 
its informing and actuating soul ; and fanaticism is a blood-hound 
that never bolts its track when it has once lapjjed blood. The 
elevation of their candidate is far from being the consummation of 
their aims ; it is only the beginning of that consummation ; and, 
if all history be not a lie, there will be cohesion enough till the 
end of the beginning is reached, and the dreadful banquet of 
slaughter and ruin shall glut the appetite. The second considera- 
tion is a i3rinciple which I cannot blink. It is nowhere denied 
that the first article in the creed of the new dominant party is the 
restriction of slavery- within its present limits. It is distinctly 
avowed by their organs, and in the name of their elected chieftain, 
as will appear from the following extract from an article written 
to pacify the South, and to reassure its fears : — 

"There can be no doubt whatever in the mind of any man, that Mr. Lincoln 
regards slavery as a moral, social and political evil, and that it should be dealt 
with as such by the Federal Government, in every instance where it is called 
upon to deal with it at all. On this point there is no room for question-- and 
there need be no misgivings as to his official action. The whole influence of the 
Executive Department of the Government, while in his hands, will be thrown 
against the extension of slavery into the new territories of the Union, and the 
reopening of the African slave trade. On these points he will make no com- 
promise, nor yield one hair's breadth to coercion from any quarter or in any 
shape. He does not accede to the alleged decision of the Supreme Court, tliat 
the Constitution places slaves upon the footing of other property, and protects 
them as such wherever its jurisdiction extends ; nor will he be, in the least degree, 
governed or controlled by it in his executive action. He will do all in his 
power, personally and officially, by the direct exercise of the powers of his office, 
and the indirect influence inseparable from it, to arrest the tendency to make 
slavery national and perpetual, and to place it in precisely the same position 
which it held in the early days of the Republic, and in the view of the founders 
of the Government.'' 

Now, what enigmas may be couched in this last sentence, the 
sphinx which uttered them can perhaps resolve ; but the sentence 
in which they occur is as big as the belly of the Trojan horse 
which laid the citv of Priam in ruins. 



17 

These utterances we have heard so long, that they fall stale 
upon the ear ; but never before have they had such significance. 
Hitherto they have come from Jacobin conventicles and pulpits, 
from the rostrum, from the hustings, and from the halls of our 
national Congress ; but always as the utterances of irresponsible 
men, or associations of men. But now the voice comes from the 
throne ; already, before clad with the sanctities of office, ere the 
anointing oil is poured upon the monarch's head, the decree has 
gone forth that the institution of Southern slavery shall be con- 
.strained within assigned limits. Though nature and Providence 
should send forth its branches like the banj^an-tree, to take root 
in congenial soil, here is a power superior to both, that savs it 
shall wither and die within its own charmed circle. 

"What say you to this, to whom this great providential trust of 
■conserving slavery is assigned ? " Shall the throne of inicjuity have 
fellowship with thee which frameth mischief by a law ?" It is this 
that makes the crisis. Whether we will or not, this is the historic 
moment when the fate of this institution hangs suspended in the 
balance. Decide either way, it is the moment of our destiny — the 
only thing affected by the decision is the complexion of that des- 
tiny. If the South bows before this throne, she accepts the decree 
of restriction and ultimate extinction, which is made the condition 
of her homage. 

As it appears to me, the course to be pursued in this emergency 
is that which has already been inaugurated. Let the people in 
all the Southern States, in solemn counsel assembled, reclaim 
the powers they have delegated. Let those conventions be 
•composed of men whose fidelity has been approved — men who 
bring the wisdom, experience and firmness of age to support and 
announce principles which have long been matured. Let these 
conventions decide firmly and solemnly what they will do with this 
great trust committed to their hands. Let them pledge each other, 
in sacred covenant, to uphold and perpetuate what they cannot 
resign without dishonor and palpable ruin. Let them, further, 
take all the necessary steps looking to separate and independent 
existence, and initiate measures for framing a new and homoge- 
neous confederacy. Thus, prepared for every contingency, let the 
3 



/ 



18 

crisis come. Paradoxical as it may seem, if there be any way 
to save, or rather to reconstruct, the union of our forefathers, it is 
this. 

Perhaps, at tlie last moment, the conservative portions of the 
North may awake to see the abyss into which they are about to 
plunge. Perchance they may arise and crush out forever the Abo- 
lition hydra, and cast it into a grave from which there shall never 
be a resurrection. 

Thus, with restored confidence, we may be rejoined a united 
and happ}'^ people. But, before God, I believe that nothing will 
effect this but the line of policy which the South has been com- 
pelled in self-preservation to adopt. I confess frankly I am not 
sanguine that such an auspicious result will be reached. Partly, 
because I do not see how new guarantees are to be grafted upon 
the constitution, nor how, if grafted, they can be more binding 
than those which have already been trampled under foot ; but, 
chiefly, because I do not see how such guarantees can be elicited 
from the people at the North. It cannot be disguised that, al- 
most to a man, they are antislavery where they are not Abolition, 
A whole generation has been educated to look upon the system 
with abhorrence as a national blot. They hope, and look, and 
pray for its extinction within a reasonable time, and cannot be 
satisfied unless things are seen drawing to that conclusion. We, on-, 
the contrary, as its constituted guardian, can demand nothing less 
than that it should be left open to expansion, sul)ject to no limi- 
tations, save those imposed by God and nature. I fear the anta- 
gonism is too great, and the conscience of both parties too deeply 
implicated, to allow such a composition of the strife. Neverthe- 
less, since it is within the range of possibility in the providence 
of God, I would not shut out the alternative. 

Should it fail, what remains but that we say to each other, 
calmly and kindly, what Abraham said to Lot: " Let there be no 
strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herd- 
men and thy herdmen, for we be brethren. Is not the whole land 
__before thee ? Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me — if thou wilt 
take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if thou depart to 
the right hand, then I will go to the left." Thus, if we cannot 



19 

save the Union, we may save the inestimable blessings it en- 
shrines ; if we cannot preserve the vase, we will preserve the pre- 
cious liquor it contains. 

In all this, I speak for the North no less than for the South ; 
for on our united and determined resistance at this moment de- 
pends the salvation of the whole country — in saving ourselves we 
shall save the North from the ruin she is madly draAving down 
upon her own head. 

The position of the South is at this moment suljlime. If she 
has grace given her to know her hour, she will save herself, the 
country, and the world. It will involve, indeed, temporary pros- 
tration and distress ; the dikes of Holland must be cut to save 
her from the troops of Philij). But I warn my countrymen, the 
historic moment once passed, never returns. If she will arise in 
her majesty, and speak now as with the voice of one man, she will 
roll back for all time the curse that is upon her. If she succumbs 
now, she transmits that curse as an heir-loom to 2:)osterity. 

We may, for a generation, enjoy com^^arative ease, gather up 
our feet in our beds, and die in peace ; but our children will go 
forth beggared from the homes of their fathers. Fishermen will 
cast their nets where your proud commercial navy now rides at 
anchor, and dry them upon the shore now covered with your bales 
of merchandise. Sapped, circumvented, undermined, the institu- 
tions of your soil will be overthrown ; and, within five and twenty 
years, the history of St. Domingo will be the record of Louisiana. 
If dead men's bones can tremble, ours will move under the mut- 
tered curses of sons and daughters, denouncing the blindness and 
love of ease which have left them an inheritance of woe. 

I have done my duty under as deep a sense of responsibility to 
God and man as I have ever felt. Under a full conviction that 
the salvation of the whole country is depending upon the action 
of the South, I am impelled to deepen the sentiment of resistance 
in the Southern mind, and to strengthen the current now flowing 
toward a union of the South in defence of her chartered rights. 
It is a duty which I shall not be recalled to repeat, for such awful 
jimctures do not occur twice in a century. 

Bright and happy days are yet before us ; and before another 



r 20 

political eartliquake shall shake the continent, I hope to be "where 
the wicked cease from troubling and where the weary are at rest." 
It only remains to say that, whatever be the fortunes of the 
South, I accept them for my own. Born upon her soil, of a father 
thus bom before me — from an ancestry that occupied it while 
yet it was a part of England's possessions — she is, in every sense, 
my mother. I shall die upon her l^osom ; she shall know no peril 
but it is my peril — no conflict but it is my conflict — and no abyss 
of ruin into which I shall not share her fall. May the Lord Grod 
cover her head in this her day of battle ! 



Extract from tlie sermon of Rev. Henry J. Van Dyke, " Old School," 
of Brooklyn, New- York, referring to Dr. Thornwell, of South Carolina, 
and Dr. Palmer, of New Orleans, as being willing to secede from the 
Union : 

" Whatever I may tliink of secession, as a remedy for the evils complained of, 
in my heart I do not blame them. My soul is knit to such men with the sym- 
pathy of Jonathan for David. "W^hatever be the result of this contest, the union 
between their liearts and mine, cemented by the word and Spirit of God, can 
never be dissolved. Earth and hell cannot dissolve it. Though my lot is cast in 
a colder clime, yet iu the outgoings of that warm affection to which space is 
nothing, I will ever say, ' Entreat me not to leave thee, for your people shall be my 
people, and your God my God ;' and though we may be separated in body for 
a while by the dark gulf of political disunion, and by the absorbing strife for 
which every sound man at the North will soon be called upon to gicd hims elf — 
the long, long, rest of eternity, will afford abundant opportunity for the interchange 
of our mutual charities." 

Extracts from Thanksgiving Sermon of Rev. Dr. Boardman, " Old 
School," of Philadelphia : 

" But when you ask me, in the name of Christianity, to ' denoukce the system 
OP SLAVERY as it cxlsts at the South,' I tell you frankly, that, if I should stand 
up iu this pulpit and do this thing, I should exp3ct Christianity to denounce me. 

" There are, in the Southern States, (the fact is too weighty to be overlooked,) 
the same cuurches which exist at the North — with this difference, however : 
that a much greater proportion, probably, of their churches than of ours, are em - 
braced in the denominations styled ' Evangelical.' " 



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